Polarization-based range-gated imaging in birefringent medium: Effect of size parameter

We have investigated the effect of size parameter of the scatterer on the image quality obtained with polarization-based range-gated imaging in birefringent turbid medium. Both linearly and circularly polarized light were utilized for imaging. The simulated results indicate that the improvement of visibility is more pronounced using circularly polarized light for the birefringent medium composed of smaller-sized scatterers at lower values of optical thickness and the birefringent medium comprising larger-sized scatterers. In contrast, linearly polarized light provides better image quality for the birefringent medium composed of smaller-sized scatterers at larger values of optical thickness. The evolution of the polarization characteristics of backscattered light and target light under the conditions mentioned above was measured to account for these numerical results.